You know about Michael Phelps, the U.S. swimmer trying to win eight gold medals at the Olympics next month. You know about Dara Torres, the 41-year-old mother who is a medal favorite. You know about Eric Shanteau, who has postponed cancer surgery so he can swim in Beijing.
Now meet Jessica Hardy, the U.S. swimmer with a positive drug test.
The 21-year-old from Long Beach tested positive for Clenbuterol at the U.S. Olympic Trials on July 4 and now is frantically trying to clear herself in the 2 ½ weeks before her first event in Beijing. She made the team in three events: the 50-meter freestyle, the 100 breaststroke and the 400 relay.
Clenbuterol is listed under banned anabolic agents, which build muscle and hasten recovery. It also possesses stimulant qualities and is sometimes prescribed to asthma patients.
Another benefit: Some steroid experts claim that Clenbuterol, if taken orally, generally clears the body in four days – and perhaps less if smaller doses are ingested.
“It has faster clearance than any of the anabolic steroids, and it's an anabolic substance,” BALCO doping guru Victor Conte said. “It will accelerate healing and tissue. It could also be used as a stimulant but would more likely be used between events to enhance recovery.”
A relatively unknown swimmer failing a drug test for a relatively unknown substance ordinarily would not make much of a splash. The problem for Hardy, though, is it happened just weeks before the Olympics and in a delicate political climate.
Hardy's coach at the Trojan Swim Club, Dave Salo, told the Orange County Register that he believes “inadvertent consumption of a banned substance” is the culprit, hinting it was in one of the numerous nutritional supplements that Hardy acknowledges taking. Hardy also was tested at the Trials three days before and two days after the July 4 test, and both of those reportedly came back negative.
But say Hardy does have a legitimate explanation. Say she is allowed to compete in the Olympics. How is that going to fly in Beijing – coming from a country that, it later came out, brushed positive tests from Olympic Trials under the rug in the 1980s and '90s?
The mess falls into the lap of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which must first decide whether to charge Hardy with a doping offense and then arrange an arbitration hearing. Either side has the right to appeal to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.
For cases that bump up against the Olympics, the court will convene a special tribunal in Beijing to expedite verdicts.
“I'm not so naive that I don't believe there's going to be political pressure somewhere,” said Howard Jacobs, Hardy's attorney. “But I also have to believe in the independence of the arbitrators.”
Jacobs said Hardy, a Cal alum who holds the American record in the 100 breaststroke, learned of the positive test on Monday night during the team's pre-Olympic camp in Northern California. She left the team but is listed on the official roster that the U.S. Olympic Committee announced Wednesday.
“She's going to keep training, just not with the team,” Jacobs said.
